THE 2017 Edition of the Megafest Leadership Awards was held on Thursday, amidst a stern warning to Zimbabweans to avoid criticising the government without proffering solutions to the country’s ongoing economic woes.
BY TINOTENDA MUNYUKWI
Lawyer and renowned motivational speaker Arthur Marara, who was the guest speaker, lashed out lazy and corrupt Zimbabweans, labelling them as the major impediment to economic growth as they blame their incompetence on the government.
Marara told NewsDay on the sidelines of the awards ceremony that his message was inspired by an observation that citizens were spending much of their time immersed in senseless social media debates, instead of engineering solutions to the economic problems that have destroyed the country.
“We can blame the government but if we are going to be successful, truth be told, we need to realise it is us. This is the secret, instead of focusing on what is out of our control, let’s focus on what is within our control,” he said.
“In other words, Zimbabweans need to start with the little things that they can change, like the number of hours that they are sleeping or what they are doing on social media, let’s start to develop ourselves.”
Zimbabweans have been criticised for attacking the government on social media networks but failing to transform the criticism into viable action that will bring the regime to account.
Marara said: “The culture of Zimbabweans is making our social media political but you can either join the bandwagon of people who are just complaining, or you can join those who are actually doing something to impact positive change.”
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He castigated the rampant corruption that is destroying most public and private institutions, and challenged Zimbabweans to shun all activities that are hampering development.
“Zimbabweans should understand that corruption is a transaction between more than one person. We are paying the police and Zimra officers, they don’t pay themselves. We need to remove the culture of corruption,” Marara said.
This year the Megafest Leadership Awards were running under the theme, A brighter future is possible in Zimbabwe, and several Business and Religious leaders were honoured across various categories.
